New Orleans on alert as Gustav kills 23

Tropical storm Gustav heads toward Jamaica, after causing landslides and floods that killed 23 people.

Tropical Storm Gustav is expected to be upgraded to a hurricane as it clears land and hits the warm water of its projected track into the Gulf of Mexico.

Tropical storm Gustav is heading toward Jamaica today, after causing landslides and flooding that killed 23 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic yesterday. Many miles away, residents in the New Orleans area have been watching it with a nervous eye. A day after stalling off Haiti's coast, the tropical storm was centred about 80 miles (130 kilometres) east-northeast of Kingston, Jamaica, and moving toward the west-southwest near 8mph (13 kph) at 2am EDT (06.00am GMT).

The storm is expected to pass very close to Jamaica later in the day, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. Its maximum sustained winds were near 45mph (75 kph). But was forecast to regain strength and the hurricane centre said it could become a hurricane again by tomorrow. Gustav poured misery onto Haiti yesterday after landslides and flooding killed at least 15 people. Elsewhere, oil workers began leaving their rigs and New Orleans drew up evacuation plans as forecasters warned the storm could plough into the US Gulf coast as a major hurricane.

A landslide buried eight people, including a mother and six of her children, in the neighbouring Dominican Republic. Gustav's expected track points directly at the Cayman Islands, an offshore banking centre where residents boarded up homes and stocked up on emergency supplies. By Sept 1 2008, Gustav could make landfall anywhere from south Texas to the Florida panhandle, and hurricane experts said everyone in between should be concerned.

"We know it's going to head into the Gulf. After that, we're not sure," said meteorologist Rebecca Waddington at the National Hurricane Center. "For that reason, everyone in the Gulf needs to be monitoring the storm." New Orleans began planning a possible mandatory evacuation, hoping to prevent the chaos it saw after Hurricane Katrina struck three years ago. Mayor Ray Nagin left the Democratic National Convention in Denver to help the city prepare. Oil prices rose for a third day on fears that Gustav, like Katrina and Rita, could damage the Gulf Coast energy infrastructure, home to 15 per cent of the US natural gas output, a quarter of its oil production and nearly half its refining capacity.

Royal Dutch Shell said it was evacuating 300 people from rigs yesterday, and other producers were doing the same. Gustav is particularly worrisome because there are few surrounding wind currents capable of shearing off the top of the storm and diminishing its power, the hurricane centre said. "Combined with the deep warm waters, rapid intensification could occur in a couple of days." Nearly 30,000 people were evacuated from low-lying areas in eastern Cuba, and state television showed muddy, waist-high water damaging homes.

The Cayman Islands ordered citizens to secure loose materials in their yards to prevent them from becoming missiles in high winds, and told them to stock up on food, medicine and fuel for generators. In the Haitian capital, chocolate waters spilt over riverbanks and into shacks of the Cite Soleil slum. Residents pushed bicycles and balanced boxes of belongings on their heads as they sought higher ground.

UN peacekeepers said they evacuated thousands of Haitians by boat and lorry, and were preparing to pull people out of the western town of Jeremie even as rain continued to fall. Civil protection director Marie Alta Jean-Baptiste said a young girl swept off a bridge by flood waters was among 15 people killed in Haiti. In the Dominican Republic, a mother's screams and the roar of falling earth jolted a Santo Domingo shantytown from its sleep on Tuesday. Marcelina Feliz and six of her seven children - ranging in age from 11 months to 15 years - were killed when a landslide crushed their tin-roofed house.

Feliz, 32, was found hugging the body of her smallest child, rescue officials said. A neighbour was also killed. "I don't know how I can live now, because none of my family is left," said Marino Borges, Feliz's husband and father of several of her children. * AP